


If thy wits run the wild-goose chase

by middlemarch



Category: A Discovery of Witches (TV), All Souls Trilogy - Deborah Harkness
Genre: Academia, Conversations, Deleted Scenes, Episode 8, F/M, Historians, Romance, Time Travel, Vampires, Witches, someone had to say it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-19
Updated: 2019-08-19
Packaged: 2020-09-08 04:39:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20313166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/middlemarch/pseuds/middlemarch
Summary: It seemed she was the only creature in creation the thought had occurred to. Though she'd never asked Marthe.





	If thy wits run the wild-goose chase

“What if Ashmole 782 is a MacGuffin?” Diana asked. Everyone had left, the many jack-o-lanterns were lit, and the house was tranquil around them, settling into its foundation like a bear in its den. There was a little time left before they Walked, a little time to ask a question that she had been carrying like a stone in her pocket.

Matthew, to his credit, did not say “What?” or make any pretense that he misunderstood.

“Are you asking me whether I would be disappointed? Or angry?” he said in the thoughtful tone he used when discussing genetics and chess gambits. “A little of both, I suppose. Only a little though.”

“Why only a little? It will have cost us all so much.” The house creaked gently in agreement and Diana smiled. She saw Matthew’s expression mirror her own, despite the anxiety he had about the journey they were about to undertake, his worry about how much she had recovered from healing him.

“You are worth all the world to me. So, if the book turns out to be nothing but nonsense, ravings without substance, or the obscene graffiti of a frustrated monk, I will be only as disappointed as I am in a corrupted blood sample or faulty computer program,” he explained.

“Matthew, it’s awfully chilly up here on the pedestal you’re putting me on,” Diana said. He laughed.

“That’s why, that’s why I love you most dearly. In the face of the greatest danger, of the abyss, you are spending your time asking me questions and taking me to task for my…extravagances, perhaps you would say.” He brought her wrist up to his lips as he had that first time, not so long ago except that it was a lifetime, and kissed her before he breathed in her scent.

“I suppose there are other compensations,” she said.

“Have we time for them?”

“I must smell like night-blooming jasmine if you’re saying that now,” Diana said. “I meant, these past few days, vampires and daemons and witches forming not a shadow Congregation but one of Light, of candlelight and sunlight, the light of Nathaniel’s laptop, the light in Em’s scrying bowl.”

“At Yale, you were the chair of several committees, weren’t you?” Matthew said, a little wry, entirely fond. This could have been any evening, a comfortable chat on the squashy sofa Em refused to replace, Matthew’s glass of wine within arm’s reach. It wasn’t though, not yet.

“Well, co-chair but yes. How did you know?”

“Because the way you speak of us, coming together, I recognize it. I have been a warrior but I’ve also been a scientist, a member of academies and salons. I know the tone, I have the memos filed away at the lab,” he said.

“There won’t be much use for that where we’re going,” Diana said.

“Wherever you are, whenever you are, your gifts will be necessary. And precious,” Matthew said, squeezing her hand.

“I guess, without Ashmole 782, I’d never get to be the first time-traveling historian. If we make it back, there’s a best-seller in it and that position at Oxford,” she said. The past was a mystery that beckoned, the future uncertain; there were few constants. Her magic, Matthew and her own mind. Would they be enough?

“Not if, when. I have every faith in you, Dr. Bishop,” Matthew said firmly. He called her Dr. Bishop and not Diana, not _mon coeur_ or _ma lionne_, not even Domina, a witch’s title; he understood her trepidation and what it was that would remind her of her mastery. 

“That’s all I need,” she said. “Come along, we don’t want to be late.”

**Author's Note:**

> I know, I know, The Book of Life is going Change Everything and Restructure Creature Society. But what if it didn't? Or wasn't supposed to? Or what if anyone in this universe had ever watched a thriller or a movie where a wizard/sorcerer/genius kid plays a prank? I like Diana better when she is a skeptical researcher, not The Greatest Witch of All Time.
> 
> I also think her hair should be braided for time walking and if it's not, there should be a reason why, like the braids would impede her unweaving time or something. I couldn't work that into this one.
> 
> The title is from Shakespeare (not Kit Marlowe!), from Romeo and Juliet.


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